SpaceX’s First Contract Cargo Mission Set for Next Month

Photo: NASA

NASA and SpaceX have announced that Elon Musk’s company is scheduled to fly its first commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station on Oct. 7. SpaceX successfully completed the demonstration flight of NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation System back in May, which did include delivering some non-essential cargo. Elon Musk also sent out a video over the weekend showing the first (very short) flight of the company’s vertical take-off and landing system it plans to use on future rockets.

SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will again launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida and will carry about 1,000 pounds of supplies, including materials for 63 new scientific investigations, according to NASA. The Commercial Resupply Services flight is being called CRS-1 and includes flying more than 700 pounds of scientific materials and 500 pounds of station hardware. With the retirement of the space shuttle orbiters, the Dragon capsule is the only vehicle capable of bringing back large amounts of cargo. The Soyuz spacecraft can return to Earth with three passengers, but has limited cargo space. Other cargo resupply vehicles are designed to burn up during reentry.

The Dragon is expected to return in late October and will again splash down off of the coast of California after descending under a parachute.

Eventually SpaceX is planning on building rockets capable of precision landings back on solid ground. The Dragon spacecraft is expected to be capable of such flights on both Earth and Mars, but also the Falcon 9 booster rocket will have similar capabilities to make the rocket reusable. While the CRS crew is in full swing making cargo runs to the ISS, other engineers at SpaceX are working on the vertical take-off and landing system they hope to use on the Falcon 9 so the rocket isn’t simply dropped in the ocean and too damaged to fly again.

Musk sent out a video (above) showing the first flight of the new Grasshopper VTVL rocket. Like many firsts in space travel, the first step is a small one with the rocket getting just a few feet off the ground. Eventually the system will allow the large booster rockets to return to earth and land at a precise point at a launch facility where they can be overhauled and return to service. Fellow newcomer in the space industry, Masten Space Systems, has also been testing precision take-off and landing rockets lately, albeit on a smaller scale.

SpaceX eventually plans on using several launch facilities in addition to launch complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. One of the possible locations is Texas. According to the Brownsville Herald, SpaceX recently began buying land in Cameron County at the southern tip of Texas adjacent to Mexico. The county includes similar geography to Florida’s space coast with an eastern shore on the Gulf of Mexico which allows for eastward launches to take advantage of the earth’s rotation with no populated areas immediately downrange.

SpaceX is contracted to fly 12 missions to the ISS. Orbital Sciences Corporation is also contracted to fly cargo under the same program. The Virginia based company is expected to launch its demonstration flights in the coming months.